On 2 June 2022, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) published the Prevention of Financial Markets Abuse Rules in terms of the Prevention of Financial Markets Abuse Act (Cap. 476 of the Laws of Malta). The Rules have superseded the Prevention of Financial Markets Abuse Guidance Notes, which have therefore become redundant in the context of regulating market abuse.
The Rules should be relevant to entities and persons falling within the scope of the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR), including issuers of financial instruments admitted to trading on a regulated market or a multilateral trading facility (in Malta’s case, capturing issuers having equity and/or bonds listed on the Official List of the Malta Stock Exchange as well as Prospects), market operators (such as the Malta Stock Exchange), persons professionally arranging or executing transactions (such as entities providing investment services under MiFID, buy side firms such as investment management firms, and firms professionally engaged in trading on own account), and persons discharging managerial responsibilities.
Amongst other things, the Rules cover:
Requirements applicable to issuers and persons acting on their behalf or on their account including as regards market sounding requirements and disclosure requirements
Requirements applicable to persons discharging managerial responsibilities within an issuer and persons closely associated with them including as regards the requirement to notify the MFSA of every transaction that such persons conduct on their own account
Requirements applicable to market operators, investment firms operating a trading venue and any person professionally arranging or executing transactions
Requirements applicable to commodity derivatives markets or related spot markets
The Rules largely cross-reference to the applicable regime set out in the MAR, together with any relevant Regulatory Technical Standards, and also refer to guidelines published by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), which provide important guidance.
Market players are now provided with a centralised source of legislative instruments and guidance applicable to the different aspects of prevention of market abuse, such as disclosure requirements, insider lists, managers’ transactions and investment recommendations and statistics.
The Rules may be accessed on this link.
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